Woman Loses Her Vision After Getting Mosquito Bites on Vacation in the Caribbean

According to Live Science, a 69-year-old woman lost the vision in her right eye after contracting the chikunyunga virus from mosquito bites she received while on vacation in Grenada. It took six days after her original symptoms for doctors to diagnose and treat her, but by that point, her optic nerve had been permanently damaged.

Chikungunya is transmitted solely to people from mosquitos, the CDC reports. The most common symptoms are fever and joint pain, but headaches, muscle pains, joint swelling, and rashes have been associated with the virus as well. Though vision loss had been seen in late stage chikungunya before, doctors first began testing the woman for HIV, syphilis, Lyme disease, and dengue fever when she originally complained of the symptom, Live Science reports.

Though they were able to diagnose the chikungunya in six days and began her on a high dose of steroids to calm her swollen optic nerve, Dr. Abhijit Mohite told Live Science that the patient's vision loss would be permanent.

There is no way to prevent chikungunya and there are no treatments or vaccines specifically for the virus, according to the World Health Organization, but when caught early, chikungunya can be dealt with completely. Those who are traveling to Africa and Asia are encouraged to prevent mosquito bites as best they can through bug spray and covering up.

This woman was the first patient to be treated in the United Kingdom for the virus; Last year, a man contracted chikungunya for the first time in the United States. Lindsay Lohan contracted it while on vacation in Bora Bora earlier this year.